Being a lazy savage I opted for a low building bench so that I can sit down. I then went to the local secondhand office suppliers and bought a swivelling office chair on wheels. I zip up and down the bench at will.

Most motorised gliders climb like a scalded cat under power. This is because the model is set up for gliding with a rearward CG and trims to suit. Thus, opening the throttle does what the throttle is supposed to do: make the model climb, but to an extreme. Either feed in some down elevator to compensate or if you have a tranny with mixers it may have 'throttle/elevator compensation' that you can select on a switch to ease pilot load.

Following on from what KK has said, if the glider climbs quickly under power, it will often stall if the throttle is closed quickly, thus losing 15m or so of hard earned height. A lot of glider guiders have the 'throttle' on a switch and so the power is either on or off, leading to the above problem.

One way to avoid it is to bank the model as the power comes off. The turn bleeds speed off without loss of height and you will find that it settles down into glide mode much more quickly this way.

Thanks for the tip about the larger sized props. I had thought about using a 15x6 but would have been reluctant to fit the larger diameters for fear of straining the engine. I will follow your advice and experiment after the little beauty is properly run in.

I too have the battery positioned under the motor on my J60, with access from the front. There is room to build a battery box for a 2200 LiPo and with the weight of the battery up front you may not need any ballast.

I am afraid that I did not take a video so I cannot share the experience with you. However it was somewhere on a level with transcendental meditation, only with a delicious noise......

Seriously, what a lovely engine! Started on the first swing and never missed a beat. Clean and with no oil leaks it made me wonder why I ever bother with Japanese engines. It is swinging a 15x8 at present but I may see if I can get a prop with less pitch. The engine is going in a very large vintage model so I don't need all out performance.

As a general guide around 27% of the chord should be good starting point for the CG of most models so if that coincides with the FMS instructions stick to them.

The Typhoon (in common with most warbirds) has a short nose moment. This is because in real life they were hanging a 1 ton engine up front and needed to keep the nose short to balance the aircraft. We do not have heavy engines in our models and so this type of aircraft always needs weight up front to compensate.

I am not familiiar with the model, but can you move the battery forward a little? That would be preferential to adding ballast, which increases the wing loading and raises the stall speed.

That is a stunning project Robert! I have bookmarked the thread and look forward to seeing more.

Thanks for the pointers on how to draw up the plan. I used to be a draughtsman long ago in another life and I know just how slow and painstaking this kind of work can be. BTW, your freehand curves are nicely done. You have a good 'hand'!

The recommended rate of charge for all NiMh batteries is quite low, around 0.1 amp, which is why 'wallwart' trickle chargers are often used. Of course this means that they take all night to charge up. Even then, at the end of the charge, the battery can be quite warm.

I use Eneloop batteries and normally charge at a rate of less than half the capacity for a fast charge. So for a 1900 battery I would charge at 0.8 to 0.9amps, not much different to your charge rate. They do get quite warm towards the end of the charge.

The commonly perceived wisdom is that regular fast charging is not a good idea as it reduces battery life. However I have not noticed such.

No doubt others will be along shortly with much better explanations but in the meantime try searching the archives. There is a lot of helpful information there.